NYT op-ed raises more questions about Trump's mental fitness

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TODAY:

An anonymous op-ed published in the New York Times has sent Washington into chaos, while questions around Donald Trump's mental fitness to be president resurface

Tonight's At Issue panel is a must-watch, writes Rosemary Barton

New concerns about the effects of radiation on Japanese workers and nearby residents from the Fukushima reactor disaster

It details an in-house "resistance" to the snap decisions, tantrums and "amoral" inclinations of a president who it says, "continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic."

Trump's "instability" is so profound, the author suggests, that there were "early whispers within the cabinet" about invoking the 25th Amendment, a constitutional mechanism to remove him from office. It's an idea that was shelved for fear of creating a national crisis.

The vice-president would be temporarily invested with all the powers of the presidency. But if Trump objected, Congress would need to debate and ratify his removal by a two-thirds majority within 21 days. A scenario that could easily turn into a nightmare in the highly charged and highly partisan U.S. political climate.

The amendment has never been used before, but it has been seriously considered.

Nor is the New York Times op-ed the first time that people have suggested that the 25th Amendment might come into play during Trump's presidency. While promoting his book Fire and Fury earlier this year, Michael Wolff said people in the West Wing bring up the amendment "all the time" when discussing the president's erratic behaviour.

But what is clear is that the list of people Donald Trump can trust is shrinking by the day.

And it may not even include himself.

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The interim House of Commons Chamber is seen during a media tour of the renovated West Block on Parliament Hill in June. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

Catch up with At Issue

The At Issue panel is a must-watch tonight, host Rosemary Barton writes:

Let's assume for a moment that you've had a rather busy summer. You went to the cottage (or the Lake, as we so charmingly call it in Manitoba), you had a lot of BBQs or just preferred to follow sports rather than politics.

So you may have rightly missed a few events. I have a solution.

At Issue will gather around the table to put the past couple of months into perspective and give you some hints about what is to come.

We are heading into what is to be a heady 12 months (more, really) of politics. There are the U.S. midterms, a Quebec election and another in New Brunswick. This spring, Alberta heads to the polls, and by then we are really into the countdown to the federal election in October 2019.

It's gonna be busy and it's gonna be exciting, and you might need some smart people to help guide you through things. Or you might just want to heckle at your screen of choice.

Consider tonight your first chance to do that since June. On At Issue we'll be talking NAFTA, pipelines and odds are that Trump's name may come up.

We'll look at where the Liberal government stands on its many promises, how the Conservatives will manage their divisions — and where the NDP is in all of this.

You may also like our early-morning newsletter, the Morning Brief — start the day with the news you need in one quick and concise read. Sign up here.

New Fukushima radiation fears

The Fukushima reactor meltdown has claimed its first official victim.

A staff member of the Tokyo Electric Power Company measures radiation levels at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture in July. (Kimimasa Mayama/AFP/Getty Images)

According to the special rapporteurs, large contractors have been using inexperienced, smaller firms to recruit labourers, creating "favourable conditions for the abuse and violation of workers' rights," and setting up situations where the labourers are "forced to make the abhorrent choice between their health and income."

Almost 77,000 people worked on the decontamination effort between 2011 and 2016, and tens of thousands more continue to be involved in the cleanup.

A woman takes a picture of a statue of a child wearing a hazardous material suit in Fukushima, Japan, on Aug. 14. (Kwiyeon Ha/Reuters)

Japanese sensitivities over how the region is being portrayed internationally complicate matters.

Officials from the Fukushima prefecture and the national Reconstruction Agency have been threatening legal action over a recent episode of the Netflix series Dark Tourist, in which the host, David Farrier, tours the area near the plant with a hand-held Geiger counter. Farrier finds higher-than-expected radiation levels and expresses his concern about the safety of food at local restaurants.

The six-metre-tall artwork is supposed to symbolize local hopes for reconstruction, and a "future free from nuclear disasters," but people complained that it gives a false impression of danger in the city, which is located more than 60 kilometres from the crippled plant.

Today in history

Sept. 6, 1982: Meet the CFL's Montreal Concordes — the worst team in football

Born out of the ashes of a Montreal Alouettes bankruptcy, the Concordes had little time — or money — to prepare for the 1982 CFL season. And it showed, painfully, week after week. The Journal's Tom Alderman describes the process of building a team from "the halt, lame rejects and cast-offs," and the overwhelming task at hand: "to snatch minimal disgrace from absolute disaster."

They are the worst football team in North America, but the Montreal Concordes remain high-spirited in spite of their low standing. 9:27

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